


Homemade

by IcyEarth



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV), A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gay Male Character, Hozier, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Song: Like Real People Do (Hozier), Songfic, Suicidal Thoughts, This is a happy fic I swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 14:21:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19443208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyEarth/pseuds/IcyEarth
Summary: Klaus made this home for himself.ORKlaus and Duncan healing together.





	Homemade

**Author's Note:**

> Read the tags, there’s some heavy shit in here.  
> If you want more like this my The Society fanfic called Paradise Rebuilt is essentially the same fic with different characters.

_ ‘I had a thought, dear _

_ However scary’ _

Klaus was honest to god terrified. Even if this place seemed like it would finally be safe, even if Count Olaf had been arrested and found guilty of child abuse and attempted murder, good luck hadn’t followed the Baudelaire siblings. And those other two, the Quagmires, made Klaus nervous. Their story was far too similar to his own.

It didn’t help that they were both so... kind.

Especially Duncan.

It made him suspicious, how good the staff and most of the other students were to him.

And it made him want to let his guard down. Thinking like that was dangerous.

_ ‘About that night _

_ The bugs and the dirt’ _

After gym that day, which had been an annoyingly fun game of capture the flag, during which Klaus had fallen and skinned his knee, Duncan had walked him to the nurse. Klaus had sat down in the rickety wooden chair a little too heavily. Duncan looked at him with this sad little glance.

“You’re the same as us, aren’t you?” Klaus wishes he doesn’t know what Duncan means, but he does, so he nods.

“We’ll be okay here, I think.” Duncan says softly.

“I wish I believed you.”

“Maybe you will, one day.”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

Duncan makes an over exaggerated breath holding face, cheeks puffed and eyes crossed, as the nurse of indeterminable gender walks through the door. Klaus is giggling for nearly three hours, despite the pain in his knees.

_ ‘Why were you digging? _

_ What did you bury?’ _

About ten months after first arriving at the school, Duncan and Isadora both miss breakfast for the first time. They don’t have classes that day, so Klaus and Violet come to the conclusion that they’ll spend the day looking for them.

They aren’t in their dorm.

They aren’t in the library.

They aren’t in the woodshop or mechanics class room.

It takes nearly two hours of looking, and when they finally find them they’re on the roof. There’s a small table up there with the remnants of a birthday cake and an empty bottle of cooking wine. Isadora occupies one of the chairs, her eyes puffy from crying and drunkenness. Duncan is sitting on the edge of the roof facing the woods, arguing with her.

Klaus can’t see his face, but he sounds like a complete wreck when he says

“You crave convertibles just as much as I do.”

Klaus is moving purely on instinct when he lunges forward across the roof, grabbing Duncan under the armpits, and hauling him off the edge. He spins Duncan around into a hug, pressing his face into his neck.

Isadora and Violet don’t say anything, and Sunny has no idea what’s going on. They just gather up their stuff and leave them be.

“Our first birthday without Quigley. Everything just got to be a little much…” Klaus just hugs him tighter.

“I’m sorry I scared you.”

“Never fucking do that again. Never.”

“Okay.”

_ ‘Before those hands pulled me _

_ From the earth?’ _

Report card day is rarely fun. It’s even less fun when the resident asshat is flaunting around with her straight A’s, acting like Klaus didn’t get the exact same grades. Duncan has been weirdly hesitant to talk about his grades, but Klaus chalks it up to hating Carmelita and not wanting her to have anymore information on him then she already has.

“Bet you’re going to have to redo the grade, you idiot orphans. Idiot orphans, idiot orphans, idiot orphans, idiot orphans…” Sure, the fact that Carmelita is skipping down the halway singing that it horrible, but at least she’s skipping  _ away _ . Klaus expected the little jerk to be worse today than other days, but this is pretty average.

What he didn’t expect was for Duncan’s face to heat up bright red, and for him to rush down the hall towards their shared dorm. The slam of the door rattles the floor slightly, but Klaus barley notices.

He’s already knocking on the locked door, because even though he has a key, he respects Duncan too much to just let himself in.

“Don’t come in!”

“You can tell me what’s going on, I swear I won’t laugh.”

A heartbeat passes.

Two.

“I failed math,” Klaus doesn't say anything, doesn’t even breath.

“Come in.”

_ ‘I will not ask you where you came from _

_ I will not ask you, neither should you’ _

Klaus and Duncan are sitting in their tree, the one that only they can climb, thanks to a ladder Violet strung together. Duncan has his notepad in his hands, and is flipping through old writing. Klaus is pretending to read, but really he’s just watching Duncan’s facial expressions as they shift and change.

After about ten minutes, Duncan stops flipping pages and stares at one with the intensity of a thousand suns.

“What?” Klaus whispers. He never knew why they whispered when they were in the tree, just that they always had.

“It’s the first and only poem I ever wrote. It’s so weird. I don’t even know what it’s about.”

“Can I see?”

“When we grab you by the ankles

Where our mark is to be made

You’ll soon be doing noble work

Although you won’t be paid

When we drive away in secret

You’ll be a volunteer

So don’t scream where we take you;

The world is quiet here.” Duncan reads out loud.

“I think it’s about right here, right now. We are doing nobel work, and the world is very, very quiet.”

“I think you’re right.”

_ ‘ _ _ Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips _

_ We should just kiss like real people do’ _

It’s the night of Violet’s eighteenth birthday, and Duncan is sitting on the end of their hotel room bed. Violet had taken all four of them into the city for a night of drinking, having done everything Sunny friendly earlier in the day. She hadn’t even wanted to take Klaus, but a pleading Isadora had convinced her that if she was getting wasted by fourteen Klaus could handle it at seventeen.

Klaus didn’t even get wasted, thank you very much. He’s barley tipsy, playing truth or dare with his crush, his sister, and hopefully his future sister in law.

“A universal dare for everyone, last dare of the night,” Violet announces, by far the drunkest in the room.

“Everyone has to do something they’ve always wanted to do!” As she announces this, Violet promptly passes out. In three minutes, she’ll be the richest person in the country, and the fifth richest person on earth. For now, she’s proposed an incredibly hard task, and is not conscious enough to answer questions about it.

Isadora moves first, grabbing the blunt they’ve been sharing from in between Violet’s fingers and taking a massive drag. It occurs to Klaus that he’s never actually seen Isadora smoke, and it’s reiterated that she’s never done it when she starts to cough up a storm.

“I’ve gone, your turn!” She sounds way too cheerful for someone still choking. Klaus tries to ask whose, but before he has the chance, Duncan is kissing him. It’s nothing like what he thought his first kiss would be like, back when he still had a crush on the milk deliverer and his life was picturesque. It’s too dry, and his neck hurts a little bit from being angled down and out, and it ends way to fast.

Duncan already looks terrified, so Klaus does the only thing he can think to do.

He kisses Duncan again.

Klaus  _ had  _ always wanted to do that.

_ ‘I knew that look dear _

_ Eyes always seeking’ _

Duncan comes out of the testimony chamber with tears running down his face and a tissue in one hand. The other hand is clutching the edge of his shirt so tightly his knuckles go from reddish pink to paper white. Klaus doesn’t say anything, just pecks him on the forehead as he passes him and walks up to his lawyer, prying his hand open gently as an afterthought.

“Tell the truth, cuz’ you’re all fucked if you don’t” Klaus gives the perpetually somber man a mock salute, and Duncan gives him a thumbs up before he goes in.

Olaf loses this parole hearing, and every single one after.

Klaus is safe.

His family is safe.

_ ‘Was there in someone _

_ That dug long ago’ _

Klaus is fully aware that he’s the youngest person that drops off Sunny, which is saying a lot, because people question  _ Violet _ , who’s significantly older looking than him. The thought of people talking to him about why he has a five year old despite being nineteen makes him queasy. 

Sunny’s darting away from him within a second of being handed her backpack, dragging back another little girl after a couple seconds, who looks roughly the same age as her.

“Klausy, Klausy, this is my friend, Dannica!” She pronounces, her chubby face positively lit with excitement. Dannica gives him a tiny wave from behind Sunny’s back. Klaus barely registers the middle aged woman making her way towards him from across the parking lot as he leans down to say hello to Dannica, shaking her tiny hand and making her laugh.

“Excuse me, who might you be?” Klaus looks older than he is, due to his worry lines and the fact that he’s going slightly gray very prematurely, too old to be Sunny’s brother, but not nearly old enough to be her dad.

Duncan saves Klaus by swooping in at the last second. He’d said he’d pick Klaus up anyway for a day in the city, but it was looking like he’d be late. Duncan looks much more believable like Sunny’s brother, both a baby face and a less perpetually worried expression making him look a good ten years younger then Klaus looked, even though he was older.

“A friend, ma’am.”

“Hello, Duncan. Where have you been the past few weeks?” The ladies tone goes from suspicious to friendly so fast it gives Klaus whiplash.

_ ‘So I will not ask you _

_ Why you were creeping, in some sad way I already know’ _

Duncan is tossing in his sleep, but none of his limbs are moving independently. He’s moving like he’s struggling in an enclosed space, eyes clenched shut while he begs a person who’s not there to ‘please just let her go, she didn’t do anything, don’t you dare touch her, don’t you fucking dare’. Klaus reaches out one hand to grip Duncan’s shoulder, the other hand reaching out to flick the lamp on.

Duncan’s dark brown hair is plastered to his forehead with sweat, and his face is incredibly pale in stark contrast. Klaus hauls him upright, forcing his arms out from his sides, making his back straighten. Duncan’s eyes pop open, and he’s already crying. Klaus lets him sob until well pass their alarm, so when Violet pokes her head in, she doesn’t ask questions, just takes over for the things they needed to do this morning.

They all do this sometimes, the Baudelaires even more so than the Quagmires. For the first three months they lived in the school, they all slept in the same bed for comfort. Even now, it’s rare they get through the week without someone having a panic attack. 

Violet drinks just a little bit too much. 

Klaus is dyeing is hair at twenty years old because he’s gone nearly completely grey. 

Isadora will shower three times on a good day.

Every time it’s on the news that someone jumped, Klaus has to call Duncan, just to make sure. 

Sunny has the worst case of child ptsd her therapist has ever seen, and none of them will ever be completely okay with seeing smoke.

But they’re getting better. 

_ ‘I will not ask you where you came from _

_ I will not ask you and neither would you’ _

Klaus has been cooking for nearly an hour, a full three course meal prepared by the time Duncan comes through the front door of the Baudelaire/Quagmire residence. Klaus thinks it smells amazing, thanks very much, and Duncan seems to agree with him, if the groan he lets out as he walks out of the mud room is any indication. The girls are out for the weekend, Isadora at a poet convention and Violet along for the fun of it.

Klaus had decided to utilize the time alone in the kitchen to make an old family recipe, one his father had taught him and Violet when he was nine. He’d been fortunate enough to have it memorised, and even if he’s pretty sure that there’s too much butter in the sauce and not enough pepper, it still smells like his early childhood in a meal.

Duncan’s arms wrap around him just as he puts the noodles on, and Klaus leans back into his grasp. Duncan’s never had what he’s making right now, but he knows that Klaus’s father liked cooking, and it rubbed off on Klaus. Klaus cooks pretty much whenever he’s feeling anything other than complete contentment. There’s something comforting knowing that no matter their situation, if he has access to more than two ingredients and a bowl, he can probably make something good.

The one thing he doesn’t make is roast beef. 

_ ‘Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips _

_ We should just kiss like real people do’ _

Violet and Klaus are sitting on their Briny Beach, Sunny having wandered off earlier in the day to collect crabs and promptly release them again. Today means very, very little to her. It’s the tenth anniversary of their parents death, and they’d already been to the graves in the cemetery up the road. They’ve both been crying pretty much nonstop all day.

“I’m selling the house.” Violet takes a deep breath before she speaks, trying to calm her nerves about telling her brother. Violet seems to expect Klaus to be mad, but he just feels… distant.

“Took you long enough.” It’s meant to be teasing, but it comes out harsh. Violet doesn’t comment, just wraps her arms around him and lets him cry against her shoulder while she shakes. It’s the last time either of them come to the beach, and it’s the last time either of them cry for their parents. It took them more than long enough.

Duncan waves at him from down the beach, a tin of cookies in his unoccupied hand.

His parents would want him to move on, and he thinks he’s going to let himself now.

_ ‘I could not ask you where you came from _

_ I could not ask you, neither could you’ _

Duncan and Klaus are back at Prufrock for the five year get together. Klaus didn’t even know five year reunions were a thing, but Prufrock was never good at being a normal school. It’s weird, being the halls of the place he hated, but that also saved his life, again.

Also, Duncan has been acting odd as fuck all night, and it’s throwing Klaus off. After the pleasantries with his old teachers, dogging Carmelita, and stuffing his face full of surprisingly decent catering food, Duncan has barely said a word to him or anyone. Klaus is chatting with a group of people he barely remembers when Duncan taps his shoulder.

“Can we go to the front hall, to the bench we waited on together for the principal on the first day we were here?” He sounds weirdly nervous, even for a school reunion. 

“Sure. Any reason?” Klaus asks, and Isadora smiles at him like a child on christmas.

“You’ll see.” She promises, winking at him in the most unsubtle way ever. Duncan gives her the ‘shut the fuck up’ look, a look Klaus only knows because he’s gotten it a hundered times before. They wander in the direction of the bench, Duncan getting more fidgety the closer they get. This hallway is almost deserted by this time of night, being the entry and all.

The only person there is Carmelita, who’s chatting up Vice Principal Nero in his office doorway, her previous poofy pink dresses traded out for a cocktail dress and stilettos. Klaus makes the conscious decision to ignore her, and Duncan does the same, making his way over to the bench and extending his arm, motioning for Klaus to sit. The second his butt hits the bench, Duncan is getting down on one knee.

He fumbles with his jacket for a few seconds, nearly a minute, before finally getting the small velvet box out and popping it open. The ring inside is a small silver ring, with a jagged chunk of the Quagmire sapphires inlaid at the very top. When they’ve talked about this, they’d agreed that diamonds were stupid and meaningless, while the Quagmire saphires had been being used in all the Quagmire engament rings since they’d gotten the saphires nearly two hundered years ago.

“Will y-” Duncan gets cut off by an already crying Klaus hauling him up for a hug, sobbing “Yes, yes, yes,” into his shoulder. Klaus has never worn a ring in his life, but somehow, this one fits perfectly.

_ ‘Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips _

_ We could just kiss like real people do’ _

This is the first, and only, real wedding Justice Strauss ever officiated. It took nearly a month of convincing, and she was still nervous about it after last time, but Klaus and Duncan agreed it felt weird to have just anyone do it. It isn’t a large congregation, pretty much the only people there are their sisters, Mr. Poe, and a few of their closer coworkers. It’s perfect.

Duncan has small enough hands that the Baudelaire family ring, salvaged from the fire, fits perfectly. A nearly identical one is made for Klaus. 

When he kisses Duncan, it feels like coming home. That’s all he’s ever wanted, a home.

Klaus made this home for himself.


End file.
